Alan Ascendant

On Monday, I attended the New York Philharmonic’s annual season-announcement luncheon; in a refreshing change, it was held on the stage of Avery Fisher Hall (the only chance most of us will ever get to sit there) instead of in the orchestra-level lobby, where the intensity of the noontime sunlight entering through its southern windows has been known to cause first-degree burns. (Here’s the webcast.)

Lorin Maazel used to combat this by wearing huge wraparound sunglasses (“He got them in Germany,” a beaming Phil staffer once told me) that made him look as though he’d just descended from the slopes at Gstaad; but the tone, back then, hardly apres ski, with Mr. Maazel solemnly reading through the entire season, week by week. This time was different: comparatively informal and relaxed, with the incoming music director Alan Gilbert, the Philharmonic’s president Zarin Mehta, and a round of special guests—including the new composer-in-residence Magnus Lindberg and the “announcer-in-residence” (as he hilariously insisted) Alec Baldwin—highlighting their own contributions to the new season. To be fair, this is partly generational: Maazel began his career when the primacy (and profundity) of classical music was unquestioned, while Gilbert, just entering his prime, must fight to keep it in the public consciousness.

A big part of the reason Gilbert was hired, I expect, was to make the Philharmonic a presence in the daily life of the city in a way it hasn’t since the days of Leonard Bernstein. Gilbert is not as forceful a public speaker as he could be, but as the native New Yorker—the first ever to be a Philharmonic M.D.—went through the various initiatives of the new season (which include the establishment of a contemporary-music ensemble), his knowledge and enthusiasm were obvious. Gilbert doesn’t have as long a track record as most of the other conductors who have worked that room. But I don’t think there was anyone there who wasn’t wishing for his success.